Data collection and central concepts

ECHP data concerning Finland derive from collections conducted in 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000 and 2001. The data were collected by computer-assisted personal interviews (CAPI), and supplementary information was obtained by computer-assisted telephone interviews (CATI). The data concerning income were gathered from administrative sources.

ECHP was a sample-based panel survey in which the same households and persons aged 16 and over in them were interviewed annually. Sampled persons who had moved out of their original households, as well as their new households were retained in the survey.

The basic data

Microdata from the ECHP surveys in all Member States of the European Union, including Finland, are stored in a databank of Eurostat, the Statistical Office of the European Communities (EC). The contents of the data are congruent, and the collection of the data and the compilation of statistics from them were performed according common standards. In most Member States, collection of ECHP data commenced in 1994 and continued annually until 2001. Austria joined the survey in 1995 and Finland in 1996. Sweden did not participate in the survey, but supplied data from its own national living conditions survey to the microdata. The UK, Germany and Luxembourg abandoned the ECHP in 1997 and replaced it with their own, national living conditions surveys.

Sample size and non-response

The target population for the survey are private households permanently resident in the country, i.e. the household population. Persons permanently resident abroad, without permanent address or residing in institutions were excluded from the survey.

The sample of the first Finnish ECHP in 1996 was a joint one with Income Distribution Statistics. The sampling design was a two-stage cluster sampling where a master sample of 31,440 persons was drawn in the first stage. The frame population comprised all persons who according to Statistics Finland's population data were aged 15 or over, were resident in Finland and belonged to a household-dwelling unit on 31 December 1995. Systematic sampling was then used to draw the target persons for the master sample from this frame population. Household-dwelling units were formed of all persons living in the same dwelling as the target person. In the second sampling stage, the final sample was drawn as a stratified sample. The used strata were the socio-economic group and income category of the target person.

The size of the final sample in 1996 was 5,732 households, of which 81 were outside the population. Households belonging to the population numbered 5,651. Acceptable interviews were obtained from 73.2 per cent of them. Persons belonging to a particular household were ascertained in the interview situation.

The households and new households that had been interviewed in the previous year or in the year before it were included in the annual net sample. Households outside the target population had been removed. The proportion of acceptable responses from the net sample, i.e. the response rate, was brought down by total non-response. Total non-response rate was higher in the first survey year than in subsequent years, mainly because of households' refusals to participate in the interviews, as well as in the year 2000, when refusals went up partly because households had been informed in 1999 that the survey was likely to discontinue.

Table 1. Formation of ECHP data in 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000 and 2001 (households)

Central concepts

Household

Households are formed by persons living alone or by persons who live and eat or otherwise use their incomes together.

Reference person of a household

Some of the classified, household-specific data, such as those on main activity or level of education are formed on the basis of data on the reference person of a household. The reference person of a household is generally the person who has the highest income in the household. Where household members have equal incomes, the member who is employed is primarily selected as the reference person.

Household type

Household type describes the living environment and conditions, stage in life and maintenance liabilities of a household. In the ECHP, household type is defined and classified in two ways.

Definition of household type by sociological typography takes into account the number and age of persons and their family relationships. It defines all children living with a parent or parents as children irrespective of their age. The categories of household type are:

One adult

• One person, aged 65 or more
• One person, aged 30 to 64
• One person, aged under 30
• Single parent with one or more children, all children aged under 16
• Single parent with one or more children, at least one child aged 16 or more

Couples

• Couple without children, at least one person aged 65 or more
• Couple without children, both aged under 65
• Couple with one child aged under 16
• Couple with two children aged under 16
• Couple with three or more children aged under 16
• Couple with children of whom at least one aged more than 16

Others

Definition of household type by economic typography uses as classification criteria the number, gender and age of persons and children's independent income based on labour market status. It defines as children all children aged under 16 living with their parent or parents and children aged 16 to 24 who are outside the labour force (e.g. students). All children aged 16 to 24 who are in the labour force and live with their parent or parents as well as all children aged 25 or more are defined as adults. The categories of household type are:

Households without children or with children with independent incomes

• One person, male aged under 30
• One person, male aged 30 to 64
• One person, male aged 65 or more
• One person, female aged under 30
• One person, female aged 30 to 64
• One person, female aged 65 or more
• Two adults, at least one aged 65 or more
• Two adults, both aged under 65
• Other households without dependent children

Households with dependent children

• Single parent with children
• Two adults with one child
• Two adults with two children
• Two adults with three or more children
• Other households with dependent children

Further statistical concepts and classifications also apply to the data on the different sub-topics of the survey.

Income

Income is based on the concepts of gross and net monetary income. Gross monetary income includes wages and salaries, entrepreneurial income, property income and current transfers received in gross. Net monetary income is derived by deducting current transfers paid from gross monetary income. Monetary income does not include imputed income items but it contains benefits in kind related to employment relationship.

In the ECHP households' income is classified according to the reference times used in the survey as follows:

• Net monetary income per month during the reference time of interviews
• Gross monetary income during the calendar year
• Net monetary income during the calendar year

The definitions of monetary income during the calendar year are almost equal to those used in the Income Distribution Statistics. In the Income Distribution Statistics, gross monetary income and disposable monetary income comprise sales profits, which are not included in monetary income in the ECHP.

The survey data also include other concepts and statistical standard classifications from various sub-sections of the survey (e.g. main type of activity).

Updated 16.4.2004